Kerry refuses to concede Ohio, US vote projection in question
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) refused to concede defeat to George W. Bush in the key swing state of Ohio, throwing television projections on the hotly contested US presidential election into question.
Votes Electoral Popular
Bush 249 51%
Kerry 242 48%
Live Election Results
The Kerry campaign rejected predictions by two networks -- Fox and NBC -- that called the midwestern state for Bush, saying that more than 250,000 ballots had not yet been counted and the president's only led by 100,000 votes.
"The vote count in Ohio has not been completed," Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement. "We believe when (it has), John Kerry will win Ohio."
Her comments left open the possibility of a re-run of the legal challenges to the 2000 election in Florida which Bush eventually won by only 537 votes after the US Supreme Court ordered a halt to recounts.
Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell said it would take 11 days for a final result to be declared in the battleground midwest state.
"I tell everybody, just take a deep breath and relax. We can't predict what the results are going to be," Blackwell, the state's top election official, told CNN television.
Blackwell said that under state law, Ohio election officials would begin counting outstanding provisional ballots 11 days from Tuesday on Nov 13.
Many provisional ballots have been cast by military members serving overseas, he said.
"We're not going to start counting those (provisional) ballots until the 11th day after the election," Blackwell said.
The projections by Fox and NBC -- which were not repeated by the three other major networks ABC, CBS and CNN -- thrust Bush to within one electoral vote of winning re-election.
CNN reported that Ohio was too close to call with Bush leading Kerry by just over 100,000 votes, or 51 to 49 percent, with 93 percent of the vote counted.
If Bush is determined to have won Ohio, and with results from the seven other states not yet called, the president will be sitting on 269 electoral votes.
The winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes and if the Ohio projections stand, a Bush victory in any one of the other states -- Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin -- would put him over the edge
Still, Kerry could tie Bush at 269 votes, forcing the election to be decided by the House of Representatives, if he wins all the 58 electoral votes that those seven states account for.
However, a tie for Kerry would be tantamount to a loss as Bush's Republican party controls the House.
In terms of the popular vote, Bush led with 51.4 million votes, or 51 percent, to Kerry's 47.8 million votes, or 48 percent, with 83 percent of the country's precincts reporting, according to CNN.
In addition to the contested Ohio call, Bush was projected to win Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The projections showed Kerry taking California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
The mood in both camps shifted visibly after television networks gave Bush Florida and a tenth of the 270 electoral votes that are needed to win the White House and awarded in separate state contests.
The southeastern state turned the 2000 election after a bitter recount dispute settled by the US Supreme Court and was key to the president's hopes this year to earn a second four-year term.
Up to 120 million people cast ballots in the election, which matched state for state the 2000 contest between Bush and Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites), except for the Republican loss of tiny New Hampshire and its four electors.
Early euphoria in the Kerry camp from initial exit polls melted as the actual returns came in. The mood became more upbeat in the White House before both sides settled in to sweat out the result.
Turnout after the marathon campaign fought over terrorism and the war in Iraq (news - web sites) could approach a four-decade high with long lines of voters reported across the country. Some queued for hours to cast their ballots.
So intense was interest that some polling centers in Ohio were kept open after their scheduled close to accommodate the huge throngs.
Experts had said the high turnout could benefit Kerry, and US stocks turned negative after Internet reports cited what they said were pirated exit polls that suggested a strong early showing for the senator from Massachusetts.
Pre-election polls had called the race a dead heat and thousands of lawyers were ready to contest close results, raising the spectre of a replay of the 36-day legal battle of 2000.
The candidates left their political fate in the voters' hands after eight months and a billion dollars of campaigning which went down to the wire. Both men broke tradition to stump on Election Day.
As Bush and Kerry cast their ballots, they both expressed confidence about the final result.
"I know I've given it my all," Bush said as he voted in the fire station in his hometown of Crawford, Texas, accompanied by his wife Laura and twin daughters.
"This election is in the hands of the people and I feel very comfortable about that," Bush said. "The issue is, who do you trust? Who do you trust to secure this country? ... People know where I stand."
The president later attended a get-out-the-vote event in Columbus, Ohio before returning to Washington to wait for the results at the White House.
Bush and Kerry stressed the need for an early, definitive result to avoid any repetition of the 2000 election debacle.
"I think it's very important for it to end tonight," Bush said. "The world watches our great democracy function and (there would) be nothing better for our system for the election to be conclusively over tonight."
"I hope there aren't challenges. I hope America will vote according to the law today," Kerry said after voting in Boston with his two daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa.
Some claims of irregularities surfaced in Florida with several voters complaining they had received phone calls or flyers sending them to the wrong polling precincts.
Like Bush, Kerry broke with tradition to hold an early Election Day campaign event in Wisconsin,
"We're going to link hands and hearts and we're going to take America to a better place," Kerry told 250 supporters in the town of La Crosse. "Let's get the job done."
US voters also decided the composition of Congress, where Republicans kept a slim majority in the 100-member Senate and retained control of the 435-seat House of Representatives. |
